THE INTERMISSION FROM HELL
Nothing seemed to happen. Jessica wondered if she had just been pranked to swallow a piece of paper. She looked around for cameras, but couldn't spot any. The road was quiet, there were no cars.
She stumbled back into her car, a 1994 Mazda 2, and felt a tingling in her stomach. Not before long, the brightness of the overcast sky became too much to bear. The wind from the air conditioning pierced her skin, as memories of the accident played again and again in increasing levels of brightness in her eyes.
Then all of a sudden, silence.
She woke up, in a hospital bed. The gentle but calming beeping of the heart rate monitor next to her. Both her legs were in large external fixators, pins gruesomely sticking into her skin and bone.
She tried to scream, but no sound came out of her mouth.
She tried to breathe, but realised her lungs were moving on their own.
She tried to move, but couldn't move her legs at all. She couldn't even move her fingers. It felt like she was held down by the a blanket made of lead.
She tried to sit up, but the tubes sticking out of the side of her hospital gown yanked on each other.
She tried to scream for help again, but no sound came out.
She was panicking, using whatever strength she had in her arms to move her lifeless body. The sticky plastic backing of the now drenched bed sheets made a deafening swishing sound.
She stopped and stayed still. The swishing sound continued, and got even louder. Her ears were ringing. She couldn't take it anymore.
Suddenly, everything went black. No sound. No colour. The darkness enveloped her.
KATIE
Jessica woke up on the break room of the hospital she works at.
Uncertain of whether everything was a dream. She tried to look at the metropolitan city health records, after a few minutes of digging. She found her.
Katie C.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk3Ybi3J6SN
D.O.B.: 1999/08/03
She clicked inside, no information and no recent visits.
She was safe. It wasn't a dream. Jessica breathed a sigh of relief.
She had around half an hour until her shift was over. She went over to the break room coffee machine, grabbed a paper cup, and started the machine.
The machine whirred and started depositing a doubleshot espresso. The smell of bleach and air freshener now had hints of chocolatey, sweet, coffee.
Right as the machine stopped. Nicki, a paramedic 3 years her senior, burst into the room.
"Jessica, A&E, now."
Jessica left her coffee behind.
"What's happened?" she asked.
"There's been a stabbing or something, I'm not entirely sure what happened but it's 3 injured. Two females critical, one male stable."
They sprinted towards the ambulance, paramedics were already wheeling two patiences inside.
"I'll follow these two, you take the third," shouted Nicki.
Jessica ran towards the other ambulance. The doors swung open as paramedics pushed the gurney. One of the paramedics from the fire department started briefing Jessica.
"Female, age 25, allegedly fell from the 7th floor, brain activitiy has ceased, CPR performed..." the paramedic continued the report as they paced towards the hospital.
Jessica didn't know where they were going. The hospital she'd interned at, worked at, studied at, suddenly became foreign to her. Blindly following the paramedic, she glanced at the girl on the gurney.
Her dark brown hair was stained with brown with blood. A bloodied white button-up blouse, a gaping head wound. Her face looked pale and lifeless.
Just a few hours ago, she was alive. Sure, only half of her body worked. But, at least she was alive.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyyCgGosl5R
Jessica stopped.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD3AahUUk8N
She turned around. The paramedic who briefed her didn't even notice.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPq7rPVcLuZ
She hurriedly rushed to her car, and drove all the way to lamppost KJ2031L.
The flyer was still there. But there were no tear-offs left. Jessica grabbed the flyer, tears streaming down her face. The lamppost KJ2031L was flickering on and off. Not before long, the light extinguished like a candle on a windy day.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUFb2EWuVKh
In the dark of the night, only illuminated by the flashing hazard lights from her silver Mazda 2, Jessica ate and swallowed the entire flyer. She was desperate, her breathing grew harder and harder, the pressure of the atmosphere weighed down on her like a sack of bricks.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7qo2SACkL0
She knelt on the tarmac, her knees splitting and bleeding as her fragile skin grazed the rough surface. Her body was shivering. She longed for the nightmare she was deathly afraid of just 2 hours ago.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpvzgdBYDYn
Although she couldn't feel anything then. Not being able to feel anything, perhaps is a better alternative than living with the soul crushing weight of reality. The reality of having killed someone, without dealing the final blow. 111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs9qStSWPtQ
On this stretch of road, there was no one but Jessica.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGcaE9fBZF5
She went back into her Mazda, switched off the hazards and the car. She stumbled towards the middle of the road, and laid on her back. Her agitated breathing calmed down, and she let the darkness envelop her. There was no low rumble from the engine, no yellow rhythmic blinking of hazard lights. No sound. No colour.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7tmIygbtol
SOUND AND COLOUR
Jessica woke up to the chirping of birds and the orange tinged lavender sky. She guessed no one had drove on this road for the entire night. Clearly. As she was still alive.
Katie was dead. She knew the moment she saw her.
She stood up from the middle of the road, and went back towards her Mazda. The birds perched on top of the lamp post fly away as Jessica approached the car.
Jessica stared into the distance. The unending plains and fields. The scent of petrichor filled the air. Silence enveloped the area once more as the birds departed.
Next to her, she can hear the faint sound of a piece of paper fluttering in the wind. She quickly turned her head towards the direction of the lamppost.
Affixed on top of the freshly applied coat of white paint, stenciled with the identification number "KJ2031L", was the flyer. The same flyer she ate yesterday night.
On the bottom of the flyer, there was only one tear-off remaining.
"EAT ME“
Jessica stared at the tear-off, then stared back at the distance. The orange sky was slowly turning blue. The sun was rising from the behind, she can feel the warmth slowly enveloping her, hugging her. Almost willing her on to stay in this life, this realm. Whatever this was.
Jessica took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She isolated herself from her surroundings. She pictured Katie, smiling in the blue hospital gown, struggling with the catheter on her bed. She recalled what she promised Katie. She said she would visit again.
She opened her eyes and walked towards the lamppost. As if to say "I was here", she pressed her hand against the fresh white paint, directly on top of the first three stenciled digits - "KJE".
She tore the entire bottom part of the flyer, and devoured it on the spot.
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